Battle of The Gods

Trentatre

"I appreciate that Alessandra," Lewis replied, returning the grin as they arrived at the dining table, pulling out the chair for her, "how about I get us a glass of wine and have a chat until dinner's ready? I would like to get to know how you like things to work both here in Maranello and during race weekends!"

"I would love that," she said as she sat down, watching him grab a bottle of rosé before taking a seat next to her and pouring the two a glass each, "you can ask me anything you want to know. I want you to feel comfortable around me and the team, on and off track, and even away from race weekends. That's one of the most important fundamentals for me."

"I've always felt comfortable around you Ale, I think from how long we've known each other and the chats we had I say we can consider us friends," Alessandra nodded in agreement, sipping on her wine as she had her full focus on Lewis, "and I have always respected your authority, especially from glimpse I've seen from race highlights, which got me really looking forward to working with you! I think I want to start off with, how is your relationship with your drivers? Like I have a good idea from what I see both at the track and on socials, but behind all of that, how is it, and how could ours look like now?"

"That's a very valid question, and I will gladly answer it. Oh and by the way, I have so much respect for you as a driver and as a person, and I agree, I do consider you as a friend," she started, "well, I grew up with Charles and Mick, always had them in my corner in every progression we made. We're really close, like right now they're at my house. Charles has an apartment here but he always ends up staying over at mines, and Mick's the same. Two of my guest rooms are basically there. I consider them my non-biological brothers, but I do not let my friendship with them cloud my judgements. I know when I can act as their friend, and when I have to be their boss. And they respect that, which is what makes our friendship work. It was the same with Carlos, but I got to know him when I started working in F1, my friendship with him was on a different level."

"Speaking off Carlos," she quickly remembered as she took another sip, "don't be surprised when you see Carlos and Max at our motorhome having coffee or lunch with us. Max has been doing that for years now, which annoys Christian but knows he can't do anything about it because it's harmless. Charles even did it before he joined Ferrari, and Mick did it when he was at Haas. I don't know how you feel, seeing your rivals sat with Charles, Mick and I at the motor home, but please know that barely any F1 talk happens unless it's things we can talk about, and it's mainly banter or catching up. We would like for you to join us and be part of our circle!"

"Yeah, I remember seeing Max over there almost every race weekend. I found it odd at first I won't lie, especially because we know how Christian is over Max," Lewis chuckled, also drinking his wine, "but then I saw how good of a friendship you guys have, not letting the heavy competition and rivalry get between that, bringing some normality to the paddock. And yeah, I'd love to be a part of that, it does tend to get lonely sometimes just being round to your team."

"Yeah, I get that," she nodded, "which is why I feel the need to have people like Max in my life. He knows the sport like I do, but we do it differently because of our teams, so we need that bit of balance."

"Do you have any rituals that you and the drivers do?" He asked, "like do you guys do something particular on race weekends?"

"I mean we've never really considered them as rituals, but you could say that," she shrugged, "I like to take the drivers out to dinner on Wednesday evening of race weekends, as a way to start the week strong and on a positive note. I guess this season whenever we won a race we partied with the team, and sometimes even other drivers and their teams joined, like you and Mercedes joined a couple of times. Oh, and I guess this is more of a tradition rather than a ritual, for the last 6 years every Thursday night of the last grand prix week, the guys and I have dinner in my hotel room and just reminisce the past months. You should join us this year!"